Backlog Conquering - Anthem On #PS4 - Part 7

This was done with my backup recording on Mini Disc.

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. I started recording these videos before the servers were taken down so from Part 5 onwards, these will go live on YouTube AFTER the servers have been shut down. You can't play Anthem anymore as the game doesn't have an off-line mode, it was online only.

I started Part 7 with a side quest before moving back to the game's story and looking for tombs. what i didn't anticipate were the challenges that had to be done to unlock the tombs. i thought that it would've been related to story and things i've done in that but it seems that for at least two of the tombs i needed to have done things online or things in the game's world. so the rest of this video is my attempts at completing the needed challenges, but finding it quite difficult. So this will continue into Part 8.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/A9yTrycU5gk

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/e8-wLS1CmN8

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/n-V3VDh_cJQ

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/kgWj3TeJWXg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/ujvrBZeRZOI

Part 6 - https://youtu.be/OaOLQf336ZQ

Cloud Monday - Final Fantasy VII: Remake - Part 1 - Early Access To Manual Saves Saved The Day!

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Final Fantasy VII: Remake via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

This was one of the worst sessions of playing a game from the Cloud i've had in a very long time. off the top of my head, the last time it was this bad was when i checked out West of Dead, https://youtu.be/KltyL6NREyA. after 4 disconnections, i gave up for this Part 1 and hopefully Part 2 will be a better experience.

But that's not to say nothing was learned. with things this bad, i would say that Final Fantasy VII: Remake is still a good choice to stream from the cloud because players get access to manual saves after the first fight and the game itself seems to auto save fairly frequently. so even though there were 4 disconnections, i only lost progress after the first one because i hadn't unlocked manual saves by that point. every time the countdown began after that, i was able to manually save before time was up.

Demo Play Thursday - Neon Inferno On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Neon Inferno from Zenovia Interactive.

Neon Inferno has been out for a few weeks now but i hadn't played the demo for it until now. i'm glad i did go back and try it as i have a good time with it. the demo is short with only a tutorial stage and the first mission/stage, but there are two characters and different difficulty levels to try.

Even though this is a short demo, we do get to learn quite a bit about the back story of the characters. the first mission also has different gameplay styles, starting with a side scrolling shooter before switching to a side scrolling car chase, and ending with a boss who switches from foreground to background. But what's missing from this demo is the story of the game. we learn so much about our character's pasts and what our jobs are currently, and yet we seem to have learned nothing of the game's story. i don't know if this is intentional or not, but i can say that there is no trailer or screenshots in this demo that could showcase such a story.

I really enjoyed the music and the world as a whole seemed to work well with the tone and graphics. there are plenty of options to give the game a CRT feel, tho the tutorial stage seemed a little broken. i can imagine that this came with it's neon would look great in HDR, but here on PS4 it looks and plays good. the controls felt responsive. i played on medium and never felt overwhelmed but there were times i needed to quickly dodge, attack, or do bullet time to counter enemies.

If you're a fan of side-scrolling brawlers or if you enjoy games with a Cyberpunk style aesthetic about them i think Neon Inferno is well worth checking out. the tutorial is good for new players so i would also say this demo is worth checking out for those who are curious. it's not perfect, it's a little short, and i would've liked a trailer at the end. but i did enjoy playing the demo and think it's worth checking out.

Backlog Conquering - Anthem On PS4 - Part 6

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. I started recording these videos before the servers were taken down so from Part 5 onwards, these will go live on YouTube AFTER the servers have been shut down. You can't play Anthem anymore as the game doesn't have an off-line mode, it was online only.

I had unlocked Strongholds in Part 5 and started Part 6 trying out the first one. unfortunately, i couldn't do it. it was just too tough. but i did try a few times and learned/remembered about the Wind Wall ability i had. after that i completed a few contracts before trying Strongholds again, thinking that i would be trying a different one, but it ended up being the one i had tried earlier and once again i failed. I ended up finishing this part by completing more contracts for Yarrow and Matthias. hopefully this'll open up things in future parts and i can focus on the story in Part 7.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/A9yTrycU5gk

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/e8-wLS1CmN8

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/n-V3VDh_cJQ

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/kgWj3TeJWXg

Part 5 - https://youtu.be/ujvrBZeRZOI

Cloud Monday - Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Part 2 - I'd Recommend Streaming It From The Cloud

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Granblue Fantasy: Relink via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

After playing Granblue Fantasy: Relink across two videos, i will say that i do recommend streaming it from the Cloud. But, we did discover something about the manual saves in this video. When a quest is engaged, the best example here being when we we're taking out Goblins and saving people, we didn't have access to manual saves. the game switches to a save crystal system for manual saves. However, the game does also seem to use auto saves at checkpoints across the quest so if the 20 second disconnection warning comes up and there's not a manual save in sight, the auto save most likely saved after a boss fight or the unlocking of the next step of the quest.

This isn't ideal, but i imagine that if we're unable to save before being disconnected we're only going to lose 5-10 minutes of progress at most. with the combat and walking around being as easy as it currently is, this isn't much of an issue. it's not perfect, but it's manageable. so if you're looking for a good looking RPG with action combat, a smart tutorial system, and likeable characters then i'd recommend giving Granblue Fantasy: Relink a try and with it's Cloud performance being so great, i'd suggest trying it there and then deciding to either continue playing via the cloud or download it if you have space to do so.

Demo Play Thursday - CASSETTE BOY On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of CASSETTE BOY from Forever Entertainment.

I can't say i had heard of this game before i downloaded it from the PSN, but reading it's store page was really interesting. at first glance, the game looks to be a retro Game Boy style RPG but when you read it's store page it becomes clear that there's more to it than that.

This is a short demo and the game makes it clear that the final version that, i think, is out now could be a little different from this. But i feel we get a good look at CASSETTE BOY. the music was really nice, the graphics were mostly fine, apart from when our character who's mostly coloured white goes onto what appears to be white sand as it's hard to tell the two apart, and i thought the tutorial for the game mechanics was handled well.

This is a game where you need to go slow, talk to everyone, and then go forward using the information you just gained. in this demo, so it could have been changed in the released game, we're not provided with an obvious go here and do that. but by talking to people we know we're meant to get the sword, we know how much the shop deed costs so we should aim to get it, and we know that the locals are frustrated by the big rock so we should be looking at ways of clearing it out of the way.

But with this demo being as short as it is and the game's story being mostly unclear, apart from the moment to moment stuff i mentioned above, i really did feel that this demo needed a trailer to showcase the game. the demo shows off the early ideas so if you're interested in mechanics then this demo maybe enough, but i'm more interested in the story and i have no idea what it really is here and i don't think the game does enough to sell it to me. as for the mechanics, well moving the world to hide things is straight from Echochrome on PS3, which i did a playthrough of it's demo before https://youtube.com/live/KW2tikPtS8g, so for me it's nothing new and this demo showed nothing new to me in it's implementation. I kinda feel that players would learn more from watching a trailer than playing this demo, but playing the demo itself is a pleasant experience. 

Backlog Conquering - Anthem On PS4 - Part 5

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. I started recording these videos before the servers were taken down so from Part 5 onwards, these will go live on YouTube AFTER the servers have been shut down. You can't play Anthem anymore as the game doesn't have an off-line mode, it was online only.

The main story brought our past back and it was tense all round. it was nice and felt believable. the tension it brought to Owen was also interesting, who had his own adventures in this part. But what ruined the moment was when we were on their Strider and the mission finished and we all spawned back at the Fort. there was no mention of this before we spawned, nor any video showing us making our way to the fort. we haven't even seen the "car park" for Striders at the fort. it felt disjointed and ruined the moment.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/A9yTrycU5gk

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/e8-wLS1CmN8

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/n-V3VDh_cJQ

Part 4 - https://youtu.be/kgWj3TeJWXg

Demo Play Thursday - House Fighters: Total Mess On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of House Fighters: Total Mess from Revulo Games.

This wasn't a great demo experience to the point where i wouldn't recommend people trying it. for example, the icon for the game and it's label say's it's a demo but when you play it the only other time it say's it's a demo is when it tells you something is not included. the link to buy the game isn't on the main page, you have to start the demo to get access to buy the game. there's no trailer for the game, there's no information saying that this is from a game in development and that the final game may differ from this demo.

That last point is important because House Fighters: Total Mess can be difficult to watch at times. there are moments when you move the camera that the screen has numerous examples of screen tearing and it gets a little disorientating and hard to follow. the game doesn't say whether the game is from an in development build of the game or from the final game. from this experience alone i wouldn't recommend playing the game.

There is the option to change the game's video quality. but it's never explained. when you change it to low, there's a big visual difference. but from medium to high, i couldn't notice any changes. i assumed that going to low would increase the framerate, but i don't know for sure as the game doesn't explain. i assume also that this is the case in the released game and not just something in the demo.

It wasn't the easiest game to play. i admit i'm not great at flying games but i was surprised that the default controls were old school down is down and up is up. we only get 1 plane to use in this demo and there are just 4 levels, the tutorial, 1, 6.1, and 4. there are a lot of enemies to deal with across the stages and, in my opinion, not enough health or ammo pick-ups to deal with them, especially as this is a demo and our first time encountering them. for those who play the game, it probably won't be such an increase in difficulty as the game should build up to it rather than how this demo just dumps us in it.

Backlog Conquering - Anthem On PS4 - Part 4

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. With the servers turned off, the game will be unplayable as there's no offline mode.

In Part 2, there wasn't a lot of time to explore and do more than the main mission. so from Part 3 onwards i'm going to make these videos a little longer, maybe up to 2 hours, to allow myself time to do a main mission, do a side mission, and do some exploring. 

In this part i got access to the Launch Bay, an online hub of sorts for players of Anthem. when i arrived there were a couple of others who seemed AFK. But, i don't know how useful it actually is. i might've missed it but i don't know how it connects to our story in Anthem, nor where is it in the base we're situated at. it felt tact on so i didn't use it much and i don't know if i'll use it much going forward. you'll have to let me know how best to use it in the comments.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/A9yTrycU5gk

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/e8-wLS1CmN8

Part 3 - https://youtu.be/n-V3VDh_cJQ

Cloud Monday - Granblue Fantasy: Relink - Part 1 - A Fun First Hour With Plenty Of Auto Saves

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS4 version of Granblue Fantasy: Relink via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

 

I may not have played a Granblue Fantasy game before, but i have seen them across various platforms and even on podcasts i've heard people talking quite positively about them. I know that there was a Granblue Fantasy iOS game a while ago but i'm unsure if this game is a direct sequel to it or a remaster of it. you'll have to let me know in the comments as the press releases i have for it don't answer that question.

The stream quality was very good in this first hour. i didn't notice any issues with the video i was watching. i also didn't notice any lag in the controls so the game felt responsive to play. one of the key things i look out for in this series is how the game saves. the service will only give us a 20 second warning before it disconnects us so we need a way to either save or for the game to have auto saved very recently. the Manual save feature of Granblue Fantasy: Relink is less clear than i would like. when i went to check for it, a message came up saying we could save from the pause screen but it wasn't there. later, i checked again and it was there and i did a manual save. in between those two times, i had played quite a lot and didn't check so i can't say for sure when manual saves actually activated but it was less than an hour. thankfully the game's auto save seems to be extremely frequent. it seemed to save before every major battle, after every cutscene, basically after every set piece and when we entered a new area.

Demo Play Thursday - Front Mission 3: Remake On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Front Mission 3: Remake from MegaPixel Studio and Forever Entertainment.

I haven't played any of the Front Mission games before so i was hoping that the demo would start with a good tutorial and not rely on prior knowledge of the previous two games in the series. There is a tutorial for the basics, but as soon as i got into actual proper battles, more things were popping up that i just had to guess. for the White Flag situation, i think i understand what's happening, but near the end when my character was doing 3 attacks when every time before it was only doing 1 i have no idea why that happened.

whilst i enjoyed the music in the game, i found the art to be surprisingly poor. i'd say all bar two of the character pictures looked odd, and not in a good way, and whilst most of the buildings looked like buildings the art was very simple. Apart from the mechs, most of the art and design of the game seemed old and low resolution. i did like the style of the old websites and navigating the internet, but that's more from a nostalgia point of view as it looks familiar. personally, i found the poor quality of art and design overall distracting. it felt like a phone game upscaled.

As for the story, it didn't really grab me. some of the character interactions felt odd, and how we instantly helped someone break the law at the end of the demo also seemed unbelievable. 

So whilst the demo was fine, i didn't enjoy playing the game and won't be seeking out the game now. the demo is best for those curious, but other than that it's hard to recommend. 

Backlog Conquering - Anthem On PS4 - Part 3

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. With the servers turned off, the game will be unplayable as there's no offline mode.

In Part 2, there wasn't a lot of time to explore and do more than the main mission. so from Part 3 onwards i'm going to make these videos a little longer, maybe up to 2 hours, to allow myself time to do a main mission, do a side mission, and do some exploring. 

Things opened up more In this part. we saw more players online and had 2 join us for our side mission. they were much higher level than me so they made quick work of the task. the game revealed more of it's online components, but they felt tact on rather than integrated into the game's story. the same can be true with the online store, it didn't really seem to add much to the experience. i don't know how much i'll interact with these online features as i'm here for the story as i'm finding it interesting.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/A9yTrycU5gk

Part 2 - https://youtu.be/e8-wLS1CmN8

Demo Play Thursday - Octopath Traveler 0 Prologue DEMO On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of Octopath Traveler 0 Prologue DEMO from DokiDoki Groove Works and Square Enix.

The Octopath Traveler 0 Prologue DEMO is a timed demo. as players, we only get to play for three hours. before i started playing i had no idea why we seemed to be arbitrarily limited, but now i've played it i can see why they did it. the game's pace changes depending on what happens. at the beginning, there's a focus on community and the town you live in. you get to meet many of the people, get  to interact with them and learn about them. there's an engagement reveal between two of your friends. for my first hour and twenty minutes, the game is just normal life in a village with some tutorials.

This means what comes next has more of an impact because very quickly village life as we know it is gone and so are our friends. as the sadness takes over things slow down and there's a time skip to when the grief has passed enough for us start moving on. with this desire to move forward, the pace of the game increases and in the last 30 minutes of this demo, or so, we're introduced to town building and set off on two quests. so the 3 hour limit doesn't act as much of a restriction as it provides a push forward.

On PS4, Octopath Traveler 0 Prologue DEMO looks and sounds fantastic. when the village gets attacked, the fire effects look almost too good against the pixel art world. when we're in battle, some effects look simple and effective and then there's the Rage Attacks which go over the top by enrobing the characters in a Super Saiyan light. Sun light and moon light look, much like the fire, too realistic in this pixel world. The music was also very nice. there wasn't a theme that disappointed me. 

Octopath Traveler 0 Prologue DEMO is well worth trying out. having now played it, i'm much more interested in the full game, it's world, and it's story. 3 hours may seem like a long time but it went quite quickly as i played it. at no point did i feel bored or that the game was taking it's time. But for those looking for a more action orientated RPG i can see why it may come across as slow or even old fashioned.

Backlog Conquering - Anthem On PS4 - Part 2

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. With the servers turned off, the game will be unplayable as there's no offline mode.

At the end of Part 1 we were assigned a mission to find someone so we start this part with that mission. what was fun was someone joining our game. they were quick and dealt with the enemies faster than us. After that i did a mission from an NPC, and also explored the local area whilst doing it. This Part ends with us getting a brand new assignment.

Check out previous parts:

Part 1 - https://youtu.be/A9yTrycU5gk

Demo Play Thursday - Windswept On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the#PlayStation 4 version of Windswept from WeatherFell and Top Hat Studios.

I was in the mood for something not so serious and charming and Windswept certainly has that appeal. the pixel art style is nice with some real nice animations. the music is nice and chill, and the platforming wasn't rage inducing hard. it was tricky at times, but the game gives the player a choice, do the simple platforming to complete the level and/or do the much harder platforming to get collectables.

When i checked out the options at the start of the game, it was clear that it's possible to personalise your gaming experience. if you want to do some speed running, there are options for that, and if you want things to be more difficult there are options for that too. but the base game, as shown in the demo, is quite a relaxed experience. the game never really punished me when i died. This early into the game, the secrets were quite often easy to spot. but there were a few i couldn't work out how to get. thankfully, there appears to be a world map where we can go back to previous levels and try again.

But, as a demo this isn't great. no where on the home screen does the demo say it's a demo. nor does it say what's included in the demo or even if our save file carries over to the main game. i ended my playthrough of the demo where i think it's ended, but seeing as the game never actually says if it's ended or not i could be mistaken. there are no links to purchase the game from the PSN either. i don't know how early or late the demo is, into the game's development cycle, so it's hard to say if the crash i experienced is likely to have been fixed or not in the retail game. 

If you're looking for a platformer to casually play, Windswept is a good choice. if you're looking for one to play and then master, Windswept has potential for you. whilst the demo itself may not be great, the game was quite enjoyable and charming. i'd certainly recommend people check out the demo if they're into the art style

Backlog Conquering - Anthem On PS4 - Part 1

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Our new game is the PlayStation 4 version of Anthem. i have previously played around 5 hours of this game back in 2019, but i stopped playing once EA announced they weren't going to update the game. The main reason for picking up Anthem now is that the game servers are going to be turned off on January 12th 2026. With the servers turned off, the game will be unplayable as there's no offline mode.

In this part, i completed the intro mission, then there's a time skip, and i did the following mission. in Part 2, i will start by doing the new mission we've been assigned. 

Demo Play Thursday - GIGASWORD On PS4

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the PlayStation 4 version of GIGASWORD from Akupara Games and Studio Hybrid.

I saw the pixel art on the PSN and thought it looked great, but i hadn't watched a video for GIGASWORD so i was surprised when it started playing how good it was. But what's odd is how there are times when there's no music, not even some ambiance. going from some really great music to nothing at all to then more music was quite odd. You'll have to let me know in the comments if this is the case with the retail release of the game or not.

I quite enjoyed the start to GIGASWORD, i thought the opening segment worked great as a tutorial. the level design and puzzles worked great. nothing felt challenging and progress was nice and smooth. But one problem with this demo is how little it communicates to the player that this is a demo. when you start, there's nothing on the home screen that says "demo", nor is there any links to pre-order/buy the game from the PSN. the demo doesn't say what the limits to the demo are either. so i got to a point in the demo where i couldn't make progress and i have no idea if that's because i missed something or if that's the demo ending.

Or it could be a result of the demo crashing. it's not often that a demo fully crashes in this series, but it happened here with GIGASWORD. i got to the PS4 home screen, submitted the PS4 error report, and loaded up the game again. But once i was back in the game, i never made any progress. You'll have to let me know in the comments if i missed something in the demo or how this differs from the released game.

Even tho it crashed and i'm not thrilled with how little it communicated to me how it's a demo, i did enjoy my time with GIGASWORD. i thought the balance between platforming, puzzles, and fighting was spot on for just starting the game, i really liked the pixel art, and the music was fantastic and cleverly hid the loop. so if you're curious about GIGASWORD, i'd recommend checking it out.

Cloud Monday - Legasista - Part 2 - The Cloud Is An OK Way To Play If You Don't Have A PS3

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS3 version of Legasista via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

After over 2 hours of gameplay, i wasn't able to finish the tutorial for Legasista so there are still some questions i have about this game that i wasn't able to answer, the main being whether you're able to save in the dungeons or not. during the tutorial, i wasn't able to, but i wondered if in longer dungeons if there would be save options. if you know, please let me know in the comments.

You're able to manually save before you enter dungeons in the hub world. there is an auto save option that has to be turned on. it will save when you return from a dungeon but as we found out in this video it won't save until character conversations have finished. there is an option to press Start to skip the conversations to try and trigger the auto save or manual save, but there doesn't seem to be a way to read the conversation that was skipped.

Having some way to manually save is better than nothing. Legasista is also a game that hasn't been re-released on other platforms, it's only on PlayStation 3. so streaming it from the cloud is an OK way to play the game if you don't have access to a PS3. but it's not perfect and a disconnection could set you back a lot if there's no way to save in a multi level dungeon.

Cloud Monday - Legasista - Part 1 - Unable To Save In The Starting Slow Tutorial Dungeons

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 1 of playing the PS3 version of Legasista via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

Legasista is a game i own on PlayStation 3 but not one i remember starting so whilst this isn't a Backlog Conquering video it's adjacent to that playlist as well as this Cloud Monday playlist.

Some of the PS3 RPG's i've played for this playlist have done well and been fine streamed from the cloud. in Legasista, you're able to save before you go into a dungeon and, if you turn it on in the options, the game will auto save when you come out of the dungeons. but at the moment i've been unable to save whilst i'm in the dungeon. so far, i've only been doing tutorial dungeons so there's a chance that when i get to the "real" dungeons the situation will change. you'll have to come back for part 2 where i hope to make it that far into the game.

I had a solid stream from the cloud today and noticed no visual artifacts in the video we were watching. there was maybe 1 or 2 slight audio blips, but other than that even the controls were good today. If i were to get macro blocking, there's a good chance it wouldn't matter too much. the background assets repeat frequently, so if some of them were a bit blocky because of the macro blocking, i would still be able to understand it as those assets are used elsewhere. The characters don't have fine detail, but they do make great use of lighting and are quite big on screen, so whilst it would be noticeable, we would still be able to understand what's happening. the text tho is my main concern. there doesn't seem to be a way to make it bigger and i've been unable to bring up the text log of what's been previously said, even tho it's in the options. with the game audio in Japanese, and no way to change that, macro blocking in the text could be detriment to the story.

Cloud Monday - Digimon Survive - Part 2 - Streaming From The Cloud Is A Good Way To Play It

This week's new Cloud Monday video is part 2 of playing the PS4 version of Digimon Survive via the PlayStation Plus Cloud Streaming Service to my Japanese launch model PlayStation 4.

In the first Part, https://youtu.be/kjyaV_4XsyY, it was clear how good the game's save system was. it was an Auto save that's pretty clear to see on screen when it's in action, typically before/after a talking set piece, and there's also the manual save option which can save the game at a specific point in a conversation. when we start this Part, we load right in to the middle of the conversation we left the game before.

When there's only a 20 second window to save before being disconnected from the service, being able to save and knowing when the game itself last saved is crucial and Digimon Survive does a great job at it. One of the reasons i feel like it's one of the better games we've played via the Cloud also comes down to the game's art style. none of the Digimon we've encountered so far has fine detail. their art style is simple and relies on expressions. if the game was to suffer from macro blocking, so instead of fine detail we get larger squares of color, there's a higher chance of such squares not getting in the way of the Digimon's design. their character models are large so there's a higher chance of the squares appearing in color anyway. the subtitles on screen are also rather large. if macro blocking were to occur in the subtitle box it would be obvious, but it's unlikely to obscure the whole world due to the size of it so for the most part text should be legible enough. if things did get rough then it's easy enough to pause and maybe even save and wait for this macro blocking to pass.

The visual novel style of gameplay also lends itself to being played from the cloud. this game has a "Backlog" feature, something fairly common amongst visual novels, where you're able to look back at text already spoken. so if there was macro blocking obscuring text you're able to check what it actually said. I think you're also able to check what was set in a cut scene, if you had to end it to save, but i haven't tested that out. 

Digimon Survive isn't a large install, the PSN Store say's it's 6.34GB so for many installing it will be a sensible option. but i do feel that playing it from the cloud is just as good of an experience. there is one added benefit for those who sometimes forget what they've installed on a console and that's whilst the icon will be on the home screen no space is taken up. so if you do forget to uninstall it when it leaves PlayStation Plus, it'll take up no space and you can add the icon into a "To Buy" folder as a Wishlist" of sorts on your console.